Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA)

The Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) reports on the status and trends of the world’s forest resources. It is led by the Forestry Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)^[1]

The FRA reports the extent of the world’s forest area as well as other variables, including land tenure and access rights, sustainable forest management (SFM), legal and institutional frameworks for forest conservation, and sustainable use.

Background

History

FAO’s mandate to assess the world’s forest resources stems from its constitution:

The Organization shall collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information relating to nutrition, food and agriculture. In this Constitution, the term ‘agriculture’ and its derivatives include fisheries, marine products, forestry and primary forestry products. (Article I, Functions of the Organization, paragraph 1)^[2]

The first FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment was published in 1948 with the main focus on assessing the availability of timber. Since then, FAO has been monitoring the world's forests at five- to ten-year intervals, and has produced various other regional and global surveys.^{[3] [4][5][6]}

Data collection and partners

The assessment is based on two primary sources of data: country reports prepared by national correspondents and remote sensing that is conduced together with national focal points and international partners, such as the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC).^{[7] [8][9]}

Definition of a forest

The FAO definition of a forest is:

Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.

The definition excludes tree stands in agricultural production systems, such as fruit tree plantations, oil palm plantations, olive orchards and agroforestry systems when crops are grown under tree cover. ^[10][11][12]

Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015

The most recent assessment, FRA 2015, builds on data from years 1990-2015 covering 234 countries and territories and shows a tendency towards reduction in the rates of forest net loss and carbon emissions from forests. However, globally, the extent of the world’s forest continues to decline. Key findings include:

• In 1990 the world had 4 128 million hectares of forest; by 2015 this area had decreased to 3 999 million hectares.
• The rate of net forest loss has nevertheless decreased by over 50 percent since 1990.
• The biggest forest area loss occurred in the tropics, particularly in South America and Africa, although the rate of loss even in these areas has decreased in the past five years.
• The vast majority of the world’s forest is natural forest, representing 93 percent of the world’s forest area, while planted forest accounts for the remaining 7 percent.

^{[13] [14]}

The next comprehensive FRA report is due in 2020.

FRA and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

FAO was the United Nations agency responsible for reporting the proportion of land area covered by forest to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).^[15] The MDGs were replaced by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016. Information provided by FRA will directly contribute to measuring progress on the SDGs on forest-related indicators under Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss (Resolution A/RES/70/1 25 September 2015).^[16]

Selected Publications

• FAO, 2016. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015. Synthesis report (Second edition)
• FAO, 2015. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015. Desk reference
• FAO, 2015. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015. Country reports
• Forest Ecology and Management, SCIENCE TO SUSTAIN THE WORLD’S FORESTS, VOLUME 352 - 2015 Special Issue: Changes in Global Forest Resources from 1990 to 2015
• FAO, 2015. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015. Infographics
• FAO, 2012. Guide for country reporting for FRA 2015. Forest Resources Assessment Working Paper 184
• FAO, 2012. FRA 2015. Terms and Definitions. Forest Resources Assessment Working Paper 180
• FAO, 2012. FAO Forestry Paper 169. Global forest land-use change 1990-2005
• FAO, 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. Main Report. FAO Forestry Paper 163

External links

• Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA)

References